Hi, I have a 99 Itasca Sunrise, on the drivers rear bedroom area a main steel support beam on the side looks like it may have shifted slightly, nothing horrible, but you can see a slight line all the way down and on the left of it there is a small area about 1 foot x 1 foot that the siding(filon type) the glue came loose. I was wondering if over time this may spread and would it be better to try to do a repair now. I worked with filon on my old rv and replaced the bunk area siding. What I was thinking in this area, is to use a high strength spray adhesive for siding with a nozzle to spray into the loose area, cut a small 1 inch x 1 inch hole, stick a small stick in there to slightly keep it open enough to spray the adhesive in, let it set for about a hour and pull the stick out, press it together and then seal up hole that was cut and stick a reflector over the hole to make repair invisible. There is a simular loose area near passenger side next to where awning is attached to frame and most likel that came loose from using awning or just bad job putting the adhesive on. Just looking for opinions if I should do this or just leave it alone. I already have the spray adhesive, had a bottle left over from previous rv. I also have a very large piece of filon also. Any suggestions are appreciated.
No need to make sure a large repair penetration! The way delam is handled by the pros is to drill a few ports and pressure or vacuum draw epoxy. Then the holes are plugged and the area refinished and blended. I used to work for an upfitter putting myself through school and we'd regularly make repairs on various composites.
I doubt your spray adhesive has the proper temperature range and mechanical properties for permanent bond, but you can get some decent epoxies from places like McMaster that will do. If you were to try it, go with ports and go get yourself one of those dent-pulling suction cups from the parts store. They may be a gimmick for most things, but if you stick it to your Filon and have an assistant pull while you inject through the ports, you should be able to get decent coverage. You need to rig up a means to apply pressure during curing - like parking next to something immoveable and doing some wedge work. Then all you need to do is caulk up the ports or otherwise hide them.
* This post was
edited 05/17/08 11:00pm by Scott_C *
Thanks for the reply. I used Stabond on the rv I repaired and worked well, but was in quart containers and the stuff is a pain to work with. Turned like gum in a matter of minutes, but when set in place it stuck. The spray I have is a special type for repairs also, can't remember the name, but the route you said is probably the way I will go and inject it. Good idea with the suction cup, seen them for about $5. I figured the area is small enough that patching the ports and trying to make them blend would make it look worse, so a refector like the side marker lights would look more stock. I dont want to put more then one there, so worst case I will have one area to touch up or figure out something like a decal to match the graphics on the side. The rest of the mh looks great and no faded areas, so trying to keep it looking good for the years to come.
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